7.  The individual applicants are mostly travellers (gens du voyage). The movement ATD Quart Monde (the applicant association [known internationally as ATD Fourth World]) is an association established under the laws of France, having its registered office in Paris. Under Article 2 of its constitution, “[t]he Movement ATD Quart Monde brings together individuals, families and population groups who refuse the fatality of the poverty in which they are condemned to live, and, together with them, men and women, of all origins, who share the same refusal ...”.
8.  The département of Val d’Oise has been home to travellers for very many years. A survey carried out in 2001 by the Association Départementale Voyageurs-Gadjé (ADVOG) identified the presence of 2,500 mobile homes, representing a population of about 10,000 individuals, of which 17% belonged to nomadic families, 42% to sedentary families and 41% to semi-sedentary families, also described as “forced itinerant” or “forced sedentary”.
The “forced itinerant” families wish to settle down but are obliged to keep moving as and when they are evicted. The “forced sedentary” families remain nomadic to some extent but are obliged to settle on a particular site when there is no great risk of eviction. These families often remain, when they are evicted, within a specific area covering several municipalities, not straying too far from focal points such as the school attended by their children, the hospital where the elderly are treated or centres of economic activity.
As regards the sedentarised families, they are owners, tenants or occupiers of land (private or municipal) on which they live permanently, and families remaining encamped on a site that is normally reserved for short stays (Source: Plans départementaux d’Aide au Logement des Personnes défavorisées du Val d’Oise (PDALPD) 2004-2007 and 2008-2010).
9. The Val d’Oise has two regulatory arrangements aimed at travellers:
(a)  The “département-level travellers’ reception and accommodation programme” (schéma départemental d’accueil et d’habitat des gens du voyage; under the so-called “Besson Acts” of 31 May 1990 and 5 July 2000 ...), which governs, depending on the needs and existing encampment capacity, the nature, location and capacity of the encampment facilities to be created in municipalities of over 5,000 inhabitants.
(b)  The “département-level accommodation action plan for persons in need” (plan départemental d’action pour le logement des personnes défavorisées, PDALPD) (provided for by the above-mentioned Law of 31 May 1990 and the Law against exclusion of 29 July 1998), which takes into account the problems raised by sedentary and semi-sedentary families.
10.  Pursuant to the above-mentioned Law of 5 July 2000, and after the annulment of the first travellers’ reception and accommodation programme by the administrative courts, a new programme was adopted in November 2004 for the Val d’Oise in respect of 2004-2010. It provided for the creation, by the 53 municipalities of over 5,000 inhabitants in that département, of 1,035 caravan spaces in encampment areas, including 219 already existing spaces, with 70% State financing.
11.  The PDALPD 2004-2007 plan for the Val d’Oise, adopted in June 2004 and following the previous 2000-2003 plan, stipulated that the actions aimed at travellers should take two forms: first, the creation of encampment areas for traveller families and, second, the provision of family rental accommodation, to be used by sedentary or semi-sedentary families, as already provided for by the previous plan. That accommodation took the form of land, with or without individual houses, on which families could place their caravans to be used for permanent residence. The circular of 21 March 2003 (concerning the implementation of the housing policy and the programming of State financing) provides for the State financing of the family rental accommodation under the same conditions as encampment areas (at 70% of the pre-tax cost within the ceiling); actual houses can be financed with the help of the rental housing loan for social integration (prêt locatif aidé d’intégration, PLAI).
12.  More than 2,000 travellers live in the area covered by the municipality of Herblay (approximately 10% of its population), occupying between 400 and 500 caravans, and most of them have been there for many years. According to the Government, around four-fifths of those mobile homes are in breach of the land-use plan.
13.  In 2000 an urban and social study (maîtrise d’œuvre urbaine et sociale, MOUS) was initiated with a view to providing alternative accommodation for the travellers who had settled in the municipality (created by circular no. 3465 of 22 May 1989, the aim of the study is to promote access to housing for individuals and families in difficulty). The study gave rise, after a social diagnosis by the ADVOG, to a memorandum of understanding dated 23 November 2004 between the prefect of the Val d’Oise, the president of the département council and the mayor of Herblay. The project provided for the creation of four sites, representing a total of 26 family plots. In September 2005 the land-use plan in respect of those sites underwent a simplified revision procedure. The first site, containing eight plots, or 24 spaces, was opened in December 2008.
14.  Under the 2004-2010 travellers’ accommodation programme for the département (see paragraph 10 above) the municipality of Herblay was exempted from the requirement to provide a site for nomadic travellers because of the number of settled families living in mobile homes and the study that was underway (see paragraph 13 above).
15. Pursuant to section 9 of the above-cited Law of 5 July 2000, the mayor of Herblay issued in July 2003, and again in January 2005, orders prohibiting the encampment of travellers’ mobile homes throughout the municipality.
16.  The applicants, who are all French nationals, had been living in Herblay, in the locality of “Bois du Trou-Poulet”, for many years and some of them had been born there ... They were part of a group of twenty-six families (42 adults and 53 children, making a total of 95 people) who had settled on the land. Some of the applicants were owners but most were tenants, while others were squatters. According to the land-use plan published in May 2003, the plots of land in question were situated in zone ND, corresponding to a “natural area qualifying for protection on account of the quality of its landscape and its various characteristics”. The plots had also been classified as ND in the earlier land-use plans. In the zone NDc, where the applicants had settled, camping and caravanning were allowed provided the site was suitably equipped and the persons concerned had the requisite authorisation.
17.  On the application of the municipality of Herblay (the “municipality”) and in accordance with a decision of the president of the Pontoise tribunal de grande instance dated 19 November 2003, two bailiffs, accompanied by police officers, visited the site on 12 February 2004 in order to take note of the occupation of the land and establish the identity of the occupiers. The bailiffs drew up an official report in which they recorded, for each part of the land, the identity of the occupiers and their type of accommodation (caravans, bungalows, huts, permanent buildings). The report stated in particular as follows: “the whole of the site in question is cluttered with a large number of pieces of vehicles, engines, spare car parts and various rubbish in the wooded area around the sites where we recorded the occupiers’ identities”.
(b)  Injunction proceedings
18.  On 30 April and 11 May 2004 the municipal authorities brought civil proceedings against forty individuals, including the applicants, before the urgent-applications judge of the Pontoise tribunal de grande instance, seeking a ruling that the land was being unlawfully occupied and that the defendants had “illegal placed mobile homes and constructions thereon”, together with an injunction requiring them to remove all their vehicles and mobile homes together with any constructions from the site, on pain of a penalty of 200 euros (EUR) per day, and stipulating that the municipality would be entitled, after a period of two months from the issuance of the injunction, to carry out the eviction and clearance itself with police assistance.
19.  The hearing took place on 18 June 2004. In a decision of 2 July 2004 the urgent-applications judge dismissed the municipality’s application. After noting that the zone NDc, occupied by the defendants, allowed for camping and caravanning, but that the encampment of caravans for more than three months was subject to authorisation unless the land was specially equipped, which was not the case here, the judge considered it sufficiently established that the defendants had been occupying the land for many years, long before the publication of the land-use plan, that some of them had a regular water or electricity supply and that the long-standing toleration of the situation by the municipality, while not amounting to a right, precluded a finding of urgency or of a manifestly unlawful nuisance, which alone could bring the matter within the jurisdiction of the urgent-applications judge.
20.  The judge further observed that, with the annulment of the travellers’ reception and accommodation programme (see paragraph 10 above), the municipality was required by the Law of 5 July 2000 to provide a site for itinerant travellers. Lastly, having regard to the bailiffs’ official report, the judge ordered the defendants to clear the land of all abandoned vehicles and rubbish within a period of two months, on pain of a fine of EUR 200 per day, and ruled that after that period the municipality would be entitled to have the land cleaned up at the defendants’ expense.
(c)  Proceedings on the merits
(i)  Judgment of the tribunal de grande instance
21.  In September 2004 the municipality brought an action against forty individuals, including the applicants, in the Pontoise tribunal de grande instance, reiterating the requests it had made to the urgent-applications judge. In a judgment of 22 November 2004 the court granted the authorities’ requests. Two other individuals (including one of the applicants) also intervened in the proceedings voluntarily. The defendants and interveners claimed that they had been living on the Bois du Trou-Poulet site for many years, since before the publication of the land-use plan, in a zone where the development of land for camping and caravanning was authorised. They relied on the right to housing, as a constitutional principle, and on the Connors v. the United Kingdom judgment (no. 66746/01, 27 May 2004), and referred to the obligation for the municipality to make land available for travellers. In the alternative, they said that they would agree to judicial mediation.
22.  The hearing took place on 27 September 2004. In a judgment of 22 November 2004 the court upheld the municipality’s claims. It began by finding that the land-use plan, published in May 2003, was automatically enforceable provided it had not been declared null and void, and that the land occupied by the defendants was in the zone NDc, allowing in principle for the land to be equipped for camping and caravanning, but that the land had not been developed in compliance with the rules of the Town and Country Planning Code (see Article L. 443-1 of the Code). The court held that the defendants, in setting up their caravans, mobile homes and cabins on the land in the absence of a permit or a decision by the prefecture in their favour, had breached the land-use plan, and that the supply of electricity by EDF (Électricité de France) did not confer any rights. After stressing the importance of the right to housing and its legislative and constitutional basis, the court took the view that, while the legislature and the public authorities had to use their best endeavours to guarantee this right as far as possible, it could not be granted “without regard for legality or in breach of the applicable rules”.
23.  The court then analysed the above-cited Connors judgment and found that the situation before it was different, since there was no question here of a summary eviction procedure (unlike Connors), or any lack of procedural safeguards, because the defendants had been able to raise all the arguments that they considered necessary for their defence before an “independent tribunal”, ruling on the merits in compliance with all the procedural rules applied in France. The court found that it did not consider that it was breaching Article 8 of the Convention in giving a decision after responding to the defendants’ submissions and that, in a State governed by the rule of law, it would be unthinkable for the enforcement of a court decision to amount to “inhuman and degrading treatment”. It added that there was no doubt that if the decision was not voluntarily enforced by the defendants, the municipal authorities, the officers of the court and the State’s enforcement bodies would ensure that enforcement was carried out in accordance with the principle of human dignity.
24.  As regards the obligation of the municipality, after the annulment of the travellers’ reception and accommodation programme, to make land available for travellers, the court referred to a letter from the prefect of the Val d’Oise to the mayor showing that the municipality was considered to have fulfilled the obligations imposed by the Law of 5 July 2000. The court further observed that the fact that the defendants had been occupying the land for such a long time might call into question their status as “travellers” and that the département-level programmes were aimed at the nomadic population, not sedentary communities which had been settled in the same place for ten or sometimes twenty years. It rejected the request for judicial mediation on the ground that it would have little chance of success, in view of the context and the large number of defendants.
25.  Consequently, the court ordered the defendants and interveners to remove all vehicles and mobile homes from the land they were occupying, and to demolish any erections thereon, within three months from the date of service of the judgment, failing which they would be fined EUR 70 per person for each day of non-compliance, and held that, after that time-limit, the municipality itself would be entitled to carry out the removal and demolition at the defendants’ expense and with police assistance. The court also ordered them to pay EUR 50 to the municipality in respect of irrecoverable expenses. It took the view that, having regard to the context of the dispute and the lack of urgency resulting from a situation that had existed for many years, it was not necessary to order the provisional enforcement of the judgment.
(ii)  Judgment of the Court of Appeal
26. Thirty-six of the defendants, including the applicants, lodged an appeal with the Versailles Court of Appeal. The applicant association filed submissions as a voluntary intervener.
27.  The hearing was held on 8 September 2005. In a judgment of 13 October 2005 the Court of Appeal declared the applicant association’s voluntary intervention admissible and upheld the judgment, except in respect of a couple (who are not applicants), for whom it ordered an expert’s report in order to ascertain the conditions of their accommodation and the conformity thereof with the land-use plan.
28.  The Court of Appeal first found that the defendants’ occupation of the land breached the land-use plan, which was automatically enforceable, and responded as follows to the arguments raised:
“While the right to housing is a constitutional principle, and while Articles 3 and 8 of the Convention ... guarantee respect for each person’s private and family life and protect everyone from inhuman and degrading treatment, these superior principles have not in this particular case been impaired, as the municipality’s action had a legal basis derived from compliance with regulations that are indiscriminately binding on everyone, thus sufficing to establish the public interest that is necessary for the exercise of such action, giving rise to adversarial proceedings at first instance and on appeal, and as the enforcement of a court decision given with due regard for defence rights cannot constitute the alleged degrading and inhuman treatment.
The long duration of the occupation does not create rights, neither does the tolerance, however lengthy, of such occupation in breach of the provisions of the municipality’s land-use plan. It is therefore pointless for certain appellants to rely on the schooling of their children, which is not necessarily undermined, or on the irrelevant fact that they hold relocation record books (carnets de circulation), which do not exempt them from complying with the regulations.
It is equally pointless for the appellants to allege bad faith on the part of the municipality or that is has breached its statutory obligations under the Besson Act.
It transpires from a letter from the prefecture of the Val d’Oise dated 18 May 2004 that the municipality has fulfilled its obligations under the Law of 5 July 2000 concerning travellers, who are considered to be nomadic and not sedentarised, which is not the case for the appellants, who have vigorously asserted their sedentarisation and emphasised the length of their occupation ...”
29.  The Court of Appeal further confirmed the rejection of the judicial mediation that had been sought, on the ground that it did not appear to be the appropriate response “to a resolution of the dispute through which the municipality strives to ensure compliance by and for all its inhabitants with laws and regulations”. Lastly, it dismissed the claim for damages submitted by the municipality and ordered the appellants to pay the sum of EUR 50 each in respect of the costs of the appeal proceedings.
The applicants stated that after that judgment had been delivered they received daily visits from an official of the municipality who, referring to the coercive fine, urged them to leave the site.
(iii)  Proceedings before the Court of Cassation
30.  The applicants, in their own names and on behalf of their minor children, together with the applicant association, applied for legal aid from the legal aid board at the Court of Cassation so that they could lodge an appeal on points of law against the judgment of 13 October 2005.
31.  On 4 and 5 July 2006 the legal aid board issued a series of decisions dismissing their applications on the ground that no ground of appeal on points of law could be raised against the impugned decision within the meaning of section 7 of the Law of 10 July 1991. In a series of identically worded decisions of 23 November 2006, the judge delegated by the President of the Court of Cassation dismissed their appeals against those decisions ...
32.  On 16 January 2007 the applicants filed a declaration with the Court of Cassation’s Registry in which they withdrew their appeals on points of law. A decision of 7 September 2007 took note of their withdrawal.
33.  Following the Court of Appeal’s judgment, the authorities decided, in the context of the département-level accommodation action plan for persons in need (see paragraph 11 above) to undertake an urban and social study (maîtrise d’œuvre urbaine et sociale, “MOUS”) concerning all the families involved in the judicial proceedings, in order to determine their individual situations and assess the options for finding alternative accommodation.
34.  Under an agreement with the prefect of the Val d’Oise dated 20 February 2006, the National Workers’ Housing Association (Société Nationale de Construction de Logements pour les Travailleurs, “SONACOTRA”) was commissioned to carry out a social study concerning all the families in question, in particular to assess their needs in terms of relocation. The study, to be completed within three months, was to provide information for each family on the situation of the land with regard to planning regulations, the current living conditions, the degree of sedentarisation, the family structure and the social situation of the household. The study was also to indicate the relocation arrangements sought by each family (sedentary housing, mobile-home accommodation or a combination), the localities where they wished to be rehoused and their desired status (tenant or owner). The agreement established the composition of the MOUS steering committee and that of the select steering committee, and indicated that this mission would be fully financed by the State.
35.  The findings of the study were presented by the SONACOTRA to the steering committee on 6 June 2006. At a meeting of 17 November 2006 between the select steering committee and the applicant association, held for the presentation to the latter of the results of the social study, the committee agreed that the families who had in the meantime left Bois du Trou-Poulet would be included in the social study. The representatives of those families were received on 16 January 2007 by the select steering committee and it was agreed that they would be interviewed by the SONACOTRA on 30 January, 1, 2 or 5 February 2007. A supplement to the MOUS agreement was drawn up on 29 January 2007 to provide for an additional social study concerning those families, the cost of which was to be covered in full by the State. Lastly, at the request of the applicant association, one last family which had not been interview in the context of the additional social study was included in the MOUS.
36.  The social studies revealed the following information. Out of the thirty-two households interviewed by the SONACOTRA, the wishes for relocation were divided as follows:
- One household had moved outside the département at the end of the 2005-2006 school year.
- One household had been rehoused by the municipality in social housing of the low-rent type.
- Three households (not applicants) had received proposals from the municipality for relocation to family plots on which facilities were being installed (see paragraph 13 above).
- Five households (all applicants) wanted social housing of the low-rent type.
- Twenty-one households (of which fourteen are applicants) wanted to be relocated to a mixed site (buildings and caravans).
- One household occupying social housing in Angers wished to be rehoused in low-rent housing in the Angers area.
- Only one household among the applicants, that of Vanessa Ricono, could not be interviewed during the social study.
37.  On 12 November 2007 a new MOUS agreement was signed for a period of eight months for the relocation of five households which had opted for social housing of the low-rent type. The agreement entrusted the SONACOTRA, which had in the meantime become ADOMA, with the responsibility of providing relocation support for those families (information, assistance with compiling applications, introduction of support mechanisms, and follow-up of relocation in practical terms). The expenses of the MOUS were covered at 100% by the State.
38.  In the meantime, in October 2004, construction work on a dual carriageway (known as the “11th Avenue”) began in close proximity to the applicants’ homes and lasted for over a year. The lawyer for some of the applicants and the applicant association’s representative for the Val d’Oise sent a number of letters between November 2004 and July 2005 to the mayor of Herblay, to the prefect and to the president of the département council, drawing their attention to the risks caused to the applicants and their children by the construction work. In a number of letters, particularly in April and July 2005, the deputy director general for highway management in the département listed the various safety measures that had been taken under the supervision of a coordinating company (signs, fences, barriers, manhole covers, etc.) and stressed that despite those precautions, the site installations and signs had frequently been the target of vandalism and theft.
39.  At the time of the adoption of the present judgment, the municipality has not enforced the judgment of 13 October 2005. However, the coercive fine, for which no settlement date has been fixed, continues to run in respect of the applicants who have remained at Bois du Trou-Poulet.
40. The applicants can be divided into three groups:
(i)  Families rehoused in social housing
Four families were relocated in social housing between March and July 2008 further to the MOUS agreement of 12 November 2007 (see paragraph 37 above): Solange Lefèvre, Catherine Lefèvre and her three children, Sandrine Plumerez and her five children, and Sabrina Lefèvre, her partner (not an applicant) and her three children.
(ii)  Families remaining in Herblay or having returned there
A number of families remained at Bois du Trou-Poulet or have returned there:
- Martine Payen, also concerned by the MOUS, refused two offers of social housing (in particular because of the amount of the rent) and still lives at Bois du Trou-Poulet on land belonging to her.
- Michèle Perioche and Germain Guiton remained on their rented land.
- Laetitia Winterstein remained with her partner (not an applicant) and their five children, on land belonging to her grandmother.
- Steeve Lefèvre and Graziella Avisse and their child have returned to Bois du Trou-Poulet after joining their aunt on an encampment area in Avranches; according to their lawyer, they received an eviction order after their return subject to a coercive fine of 300 EUR per day.
- Rosita Ricono left Bois du Trou-Poulet and went to live in a hotel; she is now living on a friend’s land in Herblay.
(iii)  Families who have left the region
Lastly, a number of families have left the region:
- Pierre Mouche left in May 2005 after undergoing a serious operation (according to his lawyer this was due to dust from the “11th Avenue” construction work). He wandered from place to place with his children, then on his own for four years, between Les Mureaux and Saint Ouen l’Aumône. In 2007 he refused social housing, in particular on account of his inability to live in such housing and his wish to settle on a family plot. He is currently living on a shopping centre carpark in Épône, next to his son Franck Mouche who gives him the assistance required by his state of health.
- Gypsy Debarre and Paul Mouche, another son of Pierre Mouche, also left with him in 2005 and wandered from place to place with their six children, who were thus unable to attend school on a regular basis; they are currently separated. Gypsy Debarre is living on the Buchelay encampment area, near Mantes-la Jolie, with four of her children. In April 2009 she refused social housing that was offered to her, in particular because of her inability to pay the rent.
- Sophie Clairsin and Thierry Lefèvre, who left in January 2006, lived on encampment areas in Avranches and Saint Hilaire. After those areas were closed for work, in August 2008 Sophie Clairsin bought a plot of non-buildable land on which she lives with her three children. According to their lawyer, the municipality of Saints has notified them of their obligation to leave the land and has brought proceedings against Sophie Clairsin in her capacity as owner.
- Patrick Lefèvre and Sylviane Huygue-Bessin and their seven children, together with Catherine Herbrecht and her three children, who also left in January 2006, lived on sites at Avranches and Saint Hilaire until they closed; they then returned to Bois du Trou-Poulet, which the municipality asked them to leave within 48 hours. They are now accommodated on Sophie Clairsin’s land.
- Philippe Lefèvre lives with his partner (who is not an applicant) in Mayenne, with the parents of the latter.
- Mario Guiton and Stella Huet live with their three children near the parents of the latter in Normandy, and they return to Herblay for short stays.
- Jessy Winterstein left Bois du Trou-Poulet with her two children and her current address is unknown.
- Vanessa Ricono and her partner (who is not an applicant) also left with their child and their current address is unknown.
41.  Those of the applicants who have left explained that, as soon as they left Bois du Trou-Poulet, the municipality had had trenches dug on the land to prevent them from returning and had demolished their cabins; they were unable to recover the personal belongings that they had left behind, as they had been destroyed or stolen.
(b)  Applications under the “DALO Act” (Law on the enforceable right to housing)
42.  A number of applicants (Michelle Périoche, Germain Guiton, Mario Guiton and Stella Huet, Laetitia Winterstein, Catherine Herbrecht, Sylviane Huygue-Bessin and Patrick Lefèvre, Gypsy Debarre and Paul Mouche, Graziella Avisse and Steeve Lefèvre, Rosita Ricono) filed applications in 2008 and 2009 (2010 for Rosita Ricono) for social housing pursuant to the Law of 2007 on the enforceable right to housing (the “DALO Act”, ...), stipulating that they wanted family plots. Their applications were denied by the mediation board (except for that of Gypsy Debarre), on the ground that they were “not eligible for relief under the DALO Act”. The Administrative Court dismissed their appeals against those decisions.
(c)  Resolution of the HALDE dated 22 February 2010
43.  On 14 February 2006 the National Association of Catholic Travellers (Association nationale des Gens du Voyage catholiques, ANGVC) complained to the High Authority for the combat against Discriminations and the promotion of Equality (Haute Autorité de Lutte contre les Discriminations et pour l’Ėgalité, the “HALDE”) concerning the ban on travellers’ camps throughout the municipality of Herblay, pursuant to a municipal by-law of 17 January 2005 (see paragraph 15 above).
44.  In a resolution of 22 February 2010, after, in particular, looking at the Court’s case-law (judgments in Chapman v. the United Kingdom [GC], no. 27238/95, ECHR 2001‑I, and Connors, cited above), the HALDE took the view that the combined effect of the département-level travellers’ reception programme and the municipal by-law, two texts of secondary legislation, had the effect of totally overriding the application of a statute (the Besson Act of 5 July 2000) whose aim was to protect travellers, and thus interfered with their rights.
The HALDE thus concluded that the exemption granted to the municipality of Herblay by the département-level programme was not compliant with the above-mentioned Law of 5 July 2000 and recommended that the prefect should review its provisions. It further recommended that the mayor of Herblay should rescind the by-law and suspend any eviction measures taken on the sole basis of that instrument, and requested to be informed within three-months of the action taken in accordance with its resolution.
(d)  Resolution of the municipal council of Herblay dated 13 September 2012
45.  In an interview given to the newspaper Le Parisien on 13 December 2010, the mayor of Herblay stated that the travellers’ encampment area prescribed by the département-level programme would be created on the land that had been set aside for family plots, as the municipality could not undertake both actions.
46.  The new département-level travellers’ reception programme for the Val d’Oise, approved on 28 March 2011, provides for the creation in Herblay of an encampment area for 25 nomadic caravans.
47.  In a resolution of 13 September 2012 the municipal council of Herblay unanimously adopted a simplified revision of the local planning plan (plan local d’urbanisme, PLU) for the purpose of creating the encampment area. ...
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